48 ALPINE FLOWERS AND GARDENS 



recognize them for what assuredly they are useful, 

 even necessary, but ultimately unscientific and 

 untruthful. Although Dr. Ovenden finds a diffi- 

 culty in sharply dividing vegetable life from the 

 lower forms of animal life, yet further on he has no 

 difficulty in speaking of organic and inorganic life ; 

 and this, I think, is an apt illustration of our 

 growing recognition of what will, some day, be a 

 general difficulty. The difficulty with regard to 

 animal and vegetable life did not exist for us *i 

 little while back, and presently we shall recognize 

 difficulties in the way of scientifically dividing 

 organic from inorganic life. 



Let me quote another author on this point Mr. 

 Edward Step. In the introductory chapter to his 

 6 The Romance of Wild Flowers,' he says : * It 

 may be fairly claimed that during the last half- 

 century our prevailing notions respecting plant life 

 have been greatly modified, and, concerning flower- 

 ing plants, have been entirely changed. Fifty years 

 ago there could be found very few botanists who 

 were not satisfied with the generalizations crystal- 

 lized in the Linnsean axiom : 



' " Stones grow, 



Vegetables grow and live, 

 Animals grow, live, and feel.' 



